U.S. women's national team legend Megan Rapinoe is facing backlash for her criticism of the Summer and Winter Olympics ruling on transgender athletes.
The IOC announced that ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in the United States, transgender females will not be allowed to compete in the women's category. The ruling is final.
Rapinoe, one of the best women's soccer players ever, is unhappy with the ruling from the IOC.
"Unfortunately, we have to say that all in the same breath as a really horrible rule came out from the International Olympic Committee," Rapinoe said. "They announced a new policy that they’re calling, I can’t even believe that they’re calling it this because it has nothing to do with protecting women, I feel like two people, who played at the very highest level for every competition that you possibly could, don’t agree with this and never felt like this was an issue at all, ‘The Protection of the Female [Women’s] Category.’"
Rapinoe thinks it's a complicated issue.
"We already know that biology, as much as we want it to be just nice and clean and tight and perfectly in one category and another, it’s not," Rapinoe explained. "We know that. So, now what we’re doing is subjecting everybody, all women and all people who are identifying as women to this really invasive testing that only to me says like, ‘Oh we’re just trying to whittle it down to a certain type of woman.' Is that what we’re doing? That’s really the whole game here."
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But fans seem to disagree.
Many have called out Rapinoe in response to her criticism regarding the Summer Olympics ruling ahead of 2028.
"If we are going to carve out a special category for females to compete in separately, then yes we should absolutely make sure only those individuals who are biological female are allowed to be in that group. Otherwise just eliminate the segregation and let everyone compete in the same class," one fan wrote.
"If she had lost her position on the team to a man or had a group of men defeat her team for the gold medal, she would be singing a different tune," one fan added.
"Megan Rapinoe has a point, but it's an idiotic one. Can someone tell me why, when these rulings come out, someone has to interview her?" one fan added.
"Maybe not all nations believe what some of the more liberal countries believe? Just because someone believes one way, you can't push or make another country believe what you do. Maybe they can have their own Olympics and be nice and invite the others to join them," one fan added.
The IOC isn't backing down, either
The IOC believes that its ruling is a fair and final one.
"Male sex provides a performance advantage in all sports and events that rely on strength, power and endurance," the IOC's announcement read. "To ensure fairness, and to protect safety, particularly in contact sports, eligibility should therefore be based on biological sex."
Who's on the right side of history?
